Over the weekend we went to pick figs at Hoogwater Farm. I’ve been strawberry picking before (and loved it) so when the opportunity to pick another fruit presented itself, I jumped on board.
Sometimes a city girl needs a bit of a country experience. It was an amazing day. I pretended I was a farmer for a little while and enjoyed being at one with nature.
But picking the fruit in the hot sun made me more grateful for how convenient my suburban and urban life is and I became more appreciative of the hard work done by farmers and farm workers to provide us – literally – with the fruits of their labour.
I got home with six punnets of figs and planned to preserve them. That’s what I did last night. I used a recipe off the internet. I can’t tell you yet if it was a success or not, but if they didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I’ll turn it into jam. ‘n Boer maak a plan. I could be a farmer with my “turning preserve into jam” thinking, right? (I will update this post later with results about the preserve.) (UPDATE: The preserve turned out well. Yay me!)
Details about fig picking at Hoogwater:
If you live in Cape Town, it takes just over an hour to drive to Hoogwater farm. The fig orchid is located next to Hoogwater Cottage – perfect for when you want to book an overnight stay not too far from home and experience farm life.
Entry fee is R40.
You can eat figs straight from the tree while you’re picking but if you want to take fruit home, you can buy punnets for R5 each.
The only available figs are White Genova figs and there are around 750 trees to pick from.
You can find them on Facebook too.
The farm is open on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm and is closed on Sundays.
TIP: Wear a hat and lots of sunblock.
Have a look at the gallery. Below.
Pity you didn’t tell me that you wanted to preserve your figs, I think I have Ma’s recipe. You could have tired it. Ma’s fig konfyt was the best.
Oh I didn’t know that! Next time, Insha-Allah. Would love to try Ma’s recipe. I still need to get her half-moon dough recipe too. 🙂
I was really excited when I came across a poster on facebook about the fig picking at Hoogwater; Thought it would be a great outing for family and friends. That was until I read your post. What an uninspiring and depressing piece of writing, nothing positive came across about your experience.
I am going to go ahead with the outing, with the hope that it will not be as bland and boring as you portrayed it to be. Fingers crossed!
Hi Annemie. Sorry you feel it was a depressing piece. I actually did enjoy myself. The only thing was that it was hot when I went which is obviously no fault of the farm. Have a lovely time when you go. I will aim to make my writing less bland and boring in future. Sorry to have disappointed you. xo. PS. My preserve turned out great.
Well written that piece was written with love and if you loved you will akways be a nice person
By the sounds of it, you were expecting Aneeqah to pen an instalment in the Die Hard franchise. Which is possible but one is unlikely to find when going to pick figs on a farm. If it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer-type adventure you’re looking for, I’m afraid a blog about food is the wrong place to find it.
Ooooh! Fig picking? I LOVE figs and so wish I had my own fig tree. As a child, we had three big fig trees in our garden – can’t believe I actually have to buy figs now 😉 Didn’t know about Hoogwater Farm. I’ll try my best to visit them before end of February. Great pics, by the way.